The rise of the Albanese government spared hopes of a new deal for people blowing the lid on government malfeasance. It isn’t working out that way for one prominent whistleblower, writes Callum Foote.

It wasn’t the first time David McBride, a soldier and military lawyer, had experienced another defeat at the hands of the government. But last week he was dealt a bitter blow.

McBride is a whistleblower who is being prosecuted after leaking details of alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan to the ABC. These documents came to be known as “The Afghan Files” and the release of this information led to a police raid of the ABC headquarters in June of 2019 and The “Brereton Report,” which alleged that Australian Defence Force personnel had killed 39 Afghan civilians.

Last Thursday, in a hearing in the ACT Supreme Court, McBride’s lawyers withdrew his application for protection under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. This came after Commonwealth lawyers made a public interest immunity claim, which has prevented McBride from using evidence from two key witnesses who were essential to his defence, McBride’s lawyers say.

According to Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer in the Democratic Freedoms team at the Human Rights Law Centre: “Last-minute legal interventions forced McBride to abandon his whistleblowing defence”. Pender labellied the decision a “travesty”.

Mr Attorney-General, discontinue this prosecution!

“The use of a public-interest immunity claim to...

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